For Lack Of A Sheet
by Digimon Lantern 1
Summary: With no ghost costume available, another choice in costume causes a chain of events which reawakens a forgotten galaxy.
1. More Than A Memory

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, MASS EFFECT, OR STARGATE SG-1. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER IS OWNED BY JOSS WHEDON. MASS EFFECT IS OWNED BY BIOWARE AND ELECTRONIC ARTS. STARGATE SG-1 IS OWNED BY MGM. UNDER SIEGE IS OWNED BY WARNER BROTHERS.

For Lack Of A Sheet

By:

Digimon Lantern 1

Chapter One

More Than A Memory

-From the Journal of Alexander LaVelle Harris-

-January 23rd, 2083-

Some people remember October 31st, 1997 as just another plain Halloween. Another night where children venture out onto dark streets accompanied by trusted individuals going door to door trick or treating the night away. I remember it quite differently. I remember it as the night my best friend died.

Her name was Willow Danielle Rosenberg. She was a timid computer loving teenage girl who I found out later had a crush on me for the longest time but I had never noticed it before. To me, she was like my sister. How was I suppose to have known? Though from how history has played out over the eight decades, there are those of you out there who would say that it was a good thing I hadn't noticed. Because if I had, in what state would the Earth be in today? My ignorance to her affections saved the world, the galaxy, and possibly countless lives throughout the universe. Don't get me wrong. I've met countless different people, humans, asari, krogans, turians, quarians, geth, salarians, drell, batarians, hanar, elcor, volus, jaffa, tok'ra, and I wouldn't trade the friendships I've made or the lives of the countless others to change what happens. I still remember the cost of all of it though. I still remember the scared teenage girl who gained back memories from a previous life where she was the savior of another universe. A universe where she had fought against machines which wiped out technologically enhanced civilizations every fifty thousand years. A universe where she had shed blood, died, and brought back to life in order to save people from a nightmare that they vehemently denied until they were forced to finally admit the truth only after the nightmare became real for everyone. A universe where she united the galaxy in order to fight one final battle that even she doesn't remember the outcome.

We lived in Sunnydale, California which was located on top of an active Hellmouth. A Hellmouth was quite literally an active opening to any number of dimensions that could very well be described as Hell. Though if one of them is the actual Hell, don't look to me for that answer. Ask a Watcher. All I know was that a Hellmouth drew untold numbers of demonic creatures to it like blood in the water draws in sharks and the unfortunate residents who lived there happened to be the seals.

Anyway, that Halloween, a man had came to Sunnydale to open up a costume shop. That in itself would have been considered innocent enough but he had an ulterior motive. He was a worshiper of Janus and was set on casting a chaos spell on the costumes he had sold. Some would confuse Janus as a chaos god but he is the Roman God of Change, the namesake of the first month of the year, January. Perhaps he was unintentionally following his god's will that night. Janus could have been using him as his instrument to generate change. I don't know.

I do know that my best friend ceased to be the person she was that night. Willow Danielle Rosenberg did die that night but she was reborn as Commander Willow Shepard. She became a warrior that is usually only seen once a generation. You know their names, William Wallace, Shaka Zulu, Joan of Arc, and now she would forever be seen among them and I blame myself.

November 1, 1997

"So, Willow, how was being that space marine chick?" Buffy asked her friend only to see her friend's face darken. "Willow, what's wrong?"

It was a few moments before she spoke up. "Buffy, Xander, the people you became last night, do you remember them as yourself or someone else?" She asked timidly.

"I remember being my uncle and I can remember some of the missions he was on." Xander replied. "But I know that wasn't me."

"Willow, is something wrong?" Giles asked concerned about the young girl who helped his charge.

Willow let out a breath. "You guys just remember bits and pieces and knowing Xander, he probably remembers all his uncle's recipes." She said. "I remember everything about Shepard and it frightens me. I remember my parents dying on Mindoir. I remember joining the Alliance and my unit getting wiped out by thresher maws on Akuze. I can still remember pushing Alenko out of the way of the Prothean beacon and getting my mind scrambled by the damned thing."

Willow began to cry and Xander wrapped his arms around his friend as he tried to comfort her only for her to frantically push him away.

"DON'T TOUCH ME! I still remember seeing you as a batarian slaver blew a hole in your chest the size of a watermelon as you tried to stop one of them. I can still hear Buffy's screams as she was carried off by those four eyed bastards and seeing Cordelia only makes it worse." She exclaimed.

"How do I make it worse for your freak-out session, Rosenberg?" Cordelia asked a little dismissive.

"You didn't die on Mindoir or be captured that night." Willow said. "You were in my unit back on Akuze. Cordelia," Tears filled her eyes as she talked to the cheerleader. "you died in my arms telling me everything was going to be okay."

Akuze

She dragged Cordelia into the cave and a feeling of overwhelming relief flooded her as she realized that the damned things couldn't for whatever reason burrow their way to them. Setting her down near a small pool of cool water, Shepard scanned the water with her omnitool relieved that the water was free of contaminants.

"Willow..." Cordelia said weakly.

She rushed back to her. "I'm here, Cordy, and I thought I told you to call me Shepard." She said with slight irritation.

"Oh bite me, I still remember the girl who thought the male varren puppy she found was a funny looking girl dog who she named Buttercup." Cordelia snarked at her before wincing in pain. "Willow, I can't see. I can't see. I'm hurt bad."

"Don't worry, Cordy. There's medigel in the kit." She said.

Quickly, she grabbed the med kit and looked inside it for the medigel canisters only to begin cursing in every language she knew. The canisters of medigel which could have saved Cordelia's life had all been ruptured.

"Where did you learn how to cuss in Asari?" Cordelia asked.

"The medigel is all broke open, Cordy." She replied. "It's useless."

"Willow, hold me up please." Cordelia asked. "It kinda hurts to breathe."

She did as she asked. Cordelia coughed and a little blood came out. She wished that there was something she could do for her to ease her pain but there was nothing she could do for her.

"It's going to be okay, Willow." Cordelia said. "The Alliance will come and find you."

"They'll get us both out of here, Cordy." She told her.

"Don't kid yourself, Willow, I know I'm dying. I don't want you to cry for me, Willow. I always had a feeling I should have died on Mindoir and I was living on borrowed time." Cordelia told her. "You're going to live, Willow. Anderson is going to find you just as he did back on Mindoir. You're not dying in some cave hiding from monsters. You're the one who's suppose to be 'marked by the Enkindlers'."

She let out a breath. "Please don't bring up that group of crazy hanar, Cordy."

"I always found it comforting. The idea that the Protheans were on some other plane of existence watching over all of us." Cordelia said weakly.

Library

"I held you in my arms long after you died crying, Cordelia." Willow said. "Just as you said, Anderson was the first voice I heard days after you died."

Cordelia shook her head. "That wasn't me, Willow, and you're not Commander Shepard."

"Are you sure about that?" Willow asked. "I can't tell where I begin and Shepard ends anymore. I can still hear the screams from those poor people I wasn't able to save back on the Collector Base. What is wrong with me?"

"You're remembering, Shepard, who you really are."

Everyone turned to see a dark haired woman walk into the library. Like most men, the first thing Xander noticed about her was that her white outfit tightly hugged her curves. Willow however reached into her backpack and pointed the Paladin X pistol she wore as part of her costume last night at her.

"Willow, put the gun down." Buffy told her.

"Buffy, if she became who I think she has then she is extremely dangerous." Willow explained. "The second time I saw her was when she was behind a hatch that had just opened and she killed a man."

The unknown woman rolled her eyes. "He did try to get everyone killed. You and Miranda included."

"What should we call you then?" Giles asked.

"I was Amalizanna, Patron Vengeance Demon of the Ignored. I was the one who granted Shepard's wish to have Xander's attention. Though I suspect that the last thing she wants anymore is for him to notice her now that she has regained who she was." She replied. "I suppose you can call me Amalia Lawson now."

"Good Lord, chaos magic mixing with the power of a vengeance demon's dark wish." Giles said as he cleaned his glasses. "Do you have any idea what you have done?"

"Risked ripping apart the fabric of space and time and caused the universe to restore what had once been lost." Amalia replied. "About the only thing that was restored was the Systems Alliance which I have been charged with doing but," she pulled out a metallic orb that began to hover away from her. "I'll let D'Hoffryn explain things further."

The orb glowed and a holographic image of D'Hoffryn appeared. He seemed quite pleased to see Willow.

"Shepard, I'm pleased to see you're fine." He said.

"You need to earn the right to that plus you are no Illusive Man." Willow replied. "I'm not Shepard. I can't be her."

"You are her. Whatever you did inside the Crucible, it caused the universe to experience a new big bang. Under any other circumstances, that would have been the end of everything but you were inside." D'Hoffryn told her. "Your force of will caused them to be saved as if the universe was a computer. Thessia, Palavan, Rannoch, Sur'kesh, Tuchanka, and other worlds you've been to were saved and the people native to there are waking up to finding their worlds looking as though the Reapers had never arrived. Even the Citadel Council in convening on the Citadel attempting to figure out what happened."

Willow shook her head. "Then why is Earth like it is?" She asked. "Funny, it seems to be a little primitive by comparison."

"You're the reason, Shepard. You experienced the horrors of the Reaper invasion firsthand." D'Hoffryn explained. "The invasion of your own home world is more traumatic than anything else can be. It was still too fresh in your mind as you entered the Crucible. However this came about though, it allowed creatures that humans would consider monsters in."

"Wait, so when the texts I've read say the world began with demons ruling it..." Giles said.

"The Old Ones were actually preceded by the Reapers. It was a way to make certain they weren't forgotten." D'Hoffryn explained. "Unfortunately, Shepard, I didn't come here to exchange pleasantries with you. Earth is at war and most of humanity doesn't know about it yet."

Over the course of the conversation, the pistol had been slowly dropping away from Amalia. When D'Hoffryn mentioned war however, the pistol began to be pointed at Amalia's head. If looks could have killed, D'Hoffryn would have been glad he was a hologram at that moment.

"Seriously, did you rip off the Illusive Man's dialogue or what?" Willow asked. "If you tell me now that human colonies are disappearing, I'm going to blow the Miranda-clone's head off."

Buffy appeared to be shocked. "Willow, you can't be serious."

Amalia however didn't seem concerned. "Oh, she is serious." She said. "Listen to him, Shepard. If you don't believe what he says, go ahead and pull the trigger."

"Not very concerned about your life, I take it." Willow replied.

"I'm was one of Lord D'Hoffryn's most loyal vengeance demons as well as his most reliable. When he asked me to do this for him, I knew there would be inherent risks. One of them being your willingness to accept the current situation." She said. "If you can't accept it for whatever reason," she rolled her eyes. "then I don't want to live."

Willow lowered the gun again. "Okay, talk."

"For two years now, the United States Air Force has been venturing to other planets via an ancient device called a Stargate. Think of it like the Conduit only a hell of a lot more stable." D'Hoffryn told her. "Their front line team has managed to singlehandedly piss off one of the most powerful races in this galaxy."

"How in the hell did they do that?" She asked angrily.

"Ask your Uncle Jack." D'Hoffryn replied.

Willow set the pistol down on the table and sat in the chair. She began to curse in every language she knew which thanks to her new memories were quite a few. Xander shook his head as he remembered what Willow's uncle was like. Buffy looked over at her male friend.

"How bad is her uncle?" She asked him.

"Willow's uncle could piss Ghandi off, Buff." Xander replied. "A diplomat he is not."

"Eventually, Shepard will need to leave Earth in order to rally the Citadel Council and the other races out there to fight against the Goa'uld." D'Hoffryn said. "You know you can make it happen, Shepard. Hell, the krogan would probably jump at whatever you point a gun at. The turians will do so after they realize the threat. The salarians, quarians, and the geth will be like a bunch of kids in a candy store when they see the new technologies they could get a hold of. Might have a problem with the asari but I'm sure that won't be too much of a problem."

"Willow can't leave." Buffy said quickly.

"Let's see priorities. You deal with things that could mean the end of the world." D'Hoffryn said before gesturing to Willow. "Shepard, on the other hand, deals with things that could mean the end of all life in the galaxy." He began to motion with his hands as if the two were on a scale. "Is it just me or does anyone else notice the disparity?"

"So Willow is like Captain Janeway?" Xander asked.

Willow laughed. "More like Captain Kirk."

"What, you get your shirt ripped off halfway into a fight?" Cordelia asked before she received a few stares from the group. "What? I can't be a Trekkie. Well, screw you guys. Kirk was the man."

"No, it's just shocking." Xander replied. "Next, we'll see Giles getting into an argument with you with him on Picard's side."

"Actually, Miss Chase, I believe Shepard is referring to her romantic relationship with one Doctor Liara T'Soni." D'Hoffryn told her.

Almost as if beckoned, Willow used her omni-tool to generate a three-dimensional hologram of the asari maiden. The image of Liara seemed to cause a stillness in the library before it was broken up by a rather rude comment.

"So what kind of demon is it, Giles?" Buffy asked.

_**BAM!**_

They turned to see Willow who held the pistol at the slayer's direction. The barrel of the gun was still smoking and a look of absolute rage was on the red head's face.

"Never...call...Liara...a...demon...again." Willow told her before she shoved the pistol into the backpack and leaving the library.

"That was a brilliant move, Summers." Cordelia snapped at Buffy. "Who is it that's dating a vampire?"

Cordelia left the library and Giles walked over to the bookshelf to see which book he'd have to replace. He began to laugh.

"G-Man, have you cracked finally?" Xander asked.

Giles held the book up for the young man to see the title. "I guess this was truly a 'Farewell To Arms."

(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)

"Willow, wait up." Cordelia exclaimed trying to catch up to her.

"What do you want, Cordelia?" She asked not wanting to deal with anyone right now. "Going to make fun of me about someone I love if what they're saying is true."

Cordelia caught the look Willow was giving her. It was the same look Buffy had when confronting anything in her path. It was the look of a predator gazing at her prey. This wasn't a comfortable experience for the former May Queen as the situation was normally reversed.

"How did you and Liara meet?" She asked.

"What?" Willow asked a bit surprised. "Why do you want to know that?"

"I saw the way you looked at that hologram of her." Cordelia said. "You are completely in love with her."

"It was during my hunt for Saren. He was a rogue Spectre that Sovereign was using to weaken the galaxy and help pave the way for the Reaper invasion." Willow began to explain. "I was given three leads to start my search for the crazy guy. I thought I knew enough at the time about him but I was curious about his subordinate, an asari matriarch named Benezia. Liara was Benezia's daughter so I thought she would be a great place to start. I was just looking for information but..."

"You found something more." Cordelia stated.

"I know you may not understand what I went through as Shepard. The destruction of my home on Mindoir and the massacre of my unit by thresher maws on Akuze closed me off to the idea of love. I had joked about it and occasionally sought 'relief' but nothing that could possibly be considered serious. But when I saw her floating in that prothean energy bubble, all I saw was an angel waiting for me." Willow told her as tears began to well up in her eyes. "I felt like whatever deity that might have existed was finally telling me it was okay to fall in love."

"That's sweet." Cordelia replied with a smile forming on her face. "What was she like?"

"At first, she was really nervous. She didn't spend a lot of time around people and that made her easily embarrassed. Liara is one of the sweetest people you could ever meet." Willow said smiling as she remembered Liara. "My death caused us to drift apart slightly..."

"Wait," Cordelia said a bit perplexed. "you died?"

"The Collectors attacked the original Normandy and I got blown out into space after saving my ship's pilot." Willow replied. "After Cerberus brought me back, I met up with Liara again and she changed a bit. At first, I thought I had lost her but I was pleasantly mistaken. Before the final push against the Reapers, she and I shared memories. I remember everything from her perspective as well. She was as nervous as I was."

"So, did you and her plan on adopting?" Cordelia asked.

"That wouldn't have been necessary. Asari can reproduce with any other species including those that aren't compatible." Willow said to her. "They use their mate's DNA to essentially scramble their own in order to become pregnant with a child. I had told Liara once of raising little blue daughters with her one day. But then, I apparently reset the fucking universe."

"You couldn't have known." Cordelia said. "You were trying to save the universe."

"Everyone carries their own curses, Cordelia." Willow replied. "My curse is that I'm always trying to keep the wolves away from the sheep. Even before when it was just helping Buffy stop vampires and other demony things, I can't ever get away from it. Looking back on my new found memories, the last year or so seems kinda trivial."

That comment caused Cordelia to make a face of disbelief which caused Willow to continue.

"The closest thing I can think of something that would seem like a demon Buffy could face would be the Thorian. It was a sentient plant that enslaved the colonists on Feros. My team and I dropped it down a big ass hole that it was conveniently hanging over." Willow told her before a smile crossed her face. "Ash, she dropped two inferno grenades down the hole and said 'Well, if it wasn't dead before, it's now having a _really_ bad day.'"

(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)

She was not in a very good mood for several reasons. Most of the reasons had to do with Buffy's old friend from out of town had shown up from out of the blue. He knew that she was, in reality, a mystically enhanced girl known to the supernatural world as the Slayer. Ford had lied to her about transferring to Sunnydale High School as records she obtained had shown her that he had been reported missing by his father. Buffy's friend was a regular at a vampire-themed nightclub called The Sunset Club_. _Details began to add up too much to the teenage Spectre and she didn't like it which led to her to be standing outside the door of the Sunset Club with her armor back on and her Paladin X pistol set on inferno rounds in her hand. She opened the door and began to fire at the vampires she saw. Three vampires went down in the initial assault which allowed Buffy to leap up to grab Drusilla and hold her hostage with a stake pointed at her unbeating heart. Fear racked Drusilla but it wasn't from the stake poised to strike at her heart if her parmour choose to ignore Buffy's ultimatum. The vampiress' fear came from the armored redhead who had just entered the club.

"Spike, the Shepard has come to save her flock from the wolves." Drusilla said fearfully. "We are just like flies to be swatted by her, Spike."

"I'm not afraid of her." Spike told her.

"You should be. She slept in the sands of the great beach and saved the garden from a big metal cuttlefish." Drusilla continued. "She scares me, Spike."

The members of the club were released and headed out of the club as Buffy led Drusilla to the door. Buffy shoved the weak vampiress to her lover and walked out the door while Willow held them at gunpoint. She holstered her weapon and the vampires kept still.

"Don't be sad, Spike." She said as she held three round objects in her hands. "Why don't I leave you with three parting gifts that a good friend of mine showed me how to make?"

She tossed two of the objects but dropped the third where she stood as she bolted out the door which Buffy shut behind her. Spike tried to reach the door before it closed to no avail but he realized when the object was at his feet.

"Bloody hell." He said as the inferno grenades detonated and consumed everything within the club.

(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)

"I still can't believe you killed Ford." Buffy said in the library the following afternoon.

"I also took out two members of the former Scourge of Europe as well as maybe fifteen to twenty other vampires with the only human casualty being a former friend of yours who fully intended to sell out not only you but the innocent and deluded people in that club to Spike just so that he could become a vampire." Willow snapped back at her. "I believe everyone in this library can safely chalk that one up in the win column. Spike and Drusilla were two very dangerous vampires that were too dangerous to leave around especially if Spike had somehow managed to fix whatever was wrong with Drusilla in the first place."

"But you killed a human." Buffy said. "You're a murderer."

"Buffy, this fight against the supernatural is a war whether or not you want to admit it or not and in war, you have enemy collaborators who have to be taken care of." Willow replied. "I don't like what I had to do but I would do it again in a heartbeat. Those vampires that I destroyed in the Sunset Club mean that many more people can go home at night without becoming a late-night snack. Besides, no one messes with my team ever."

(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)

Liara entered the CIC of the Normandy and went over to Joker and EDI. The pilot of the ship and the ship's artificial intelligence were conversing between themselves when the asari interrupted them.

"EDI, Joker, we need to get everyone on board now." She told them.

"Have you found Shepard?" He asked almost like a child wishing for a toy for his birthday.

"No, but Balak has and he's leading a group to Earth." She replied. "We need to get there before it's too late."

Author's End Notes: I'm sorry to tell everyone this but I had been planning a massive update of the stories I had written when tragedy struck twice. First, my computer's hard drive went belly up and I lost every one of the chapters in the repairs. Then, the frakking motherboard fried. I don't know how long it will be before I can update any of them so if there is anyone who might wish to adopt one of them. Please e-mail me.


	2. Eighth Of November

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, MASS EFFECT, OR STARGATE SG-1. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER IS OWNED BY JOSS WHEDON. MASS EFFECT IS OWNED BY BIOWARE AND ELECTRONIC ARTS. STARGATE SG-1 IS OWNED BY MGM. UNDER SIEGE IS OWNED BY WARNER BROTHERS.

Chapter Two

The Eighth Of November

-From The Journal Of Alexander LaVelle Harris-

-January 26th, 2083-

If there is one species in the universe that I can say I hate worse than the Goa'uld, the Ori, or the Wraith, I would say it would have to be the batarians. The Goa'uld are just evil but I think that can be attributed to the corrupting effect that overuse of the sarcophagus technology can do. The Ori had been corrupted by thousands of years of being worshiped as gods which would corrupt anyone. The Wraith are evil simply because it is in their nature though it would be a disservice to them to call them evil. True, they did cull planets of their human population for food but they do that because they have to. Just as a shark kills a seal or a lioness kills a gazelle on the savannah, the Wraith cull planets because that is what they know.

The Batarians on the other hand choose to be evil. No one forces them to go after alien populations on other worlds and attack them. No one forces them to enslave sentient races. No one forces them to deprive people of the inalienable right to freedom. They do it simply because they want to. According to them, slavery is a fundamental part of their culture that should not be trampled upon. Gee, hypocrites much.

I can't say I've ever met a good batarian but I can't say there can't be one out there. Anything is possible no matter how slim the possibility is. The worst example of everything that is wrong with the batarians could be summed up in one person, Balak. Balak was an old enemy of Willow from her original time as Shepard. Apparently, he had tried to drop an asteroid on a human colony. It's an event that Willow told me was referred to as the 'Bring Down The Sky incident'. She managed to save the colony but Balak managed to escape after he used her sense of honor and hold the asteroid workers hostage long enough to allow for his escape.

Somehow, it seems fitting looking back on it now that it was Balak and the batarians who brought Willow back to the galaxy at large. It's said that all things come full circle and it seems in Willow's case it was true but I wish it didn't come at the cost to her that it did. We had all hoped that it would have been a few years before she would have to leave us to help rally the galaxy but that was being a bit selfish especially to Willow.

Too many people lost their lives that day due to Balak's hatred of Willow. Too many died in order for that bastard to try to satisfy that batarian's hatred for her. But it will be a day I will remember till the day I die. It was the day I met the woman I would spend the rest of my life with.

(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)

Balak gazed at the planet his small squadron of ships. It was all that he could manage to gather for this particular mission of his. Too many of his people were wanting to rebuild what had been destroyed and they couldn't see the greater threat. The truth that Shepard was too powerful a symbol to the Citadel races that the batarians were a weak people. That their culture shouldn't matter to anyone. Already, the krogans were attacking what few slaving raids any batarians were able to cobble together.

_This is all Shepard's fault._ He thought. _She's the reason my people are so weak. While all the __other races had been restored to their prior strength before the Reaper Invasion, the batarians had been left out of the miracle restoration._

Earth appeared to be the same way except for the small fact that it appeared as though all the technology on the planet was two centuries out of date. The scanners even detected what historical files he had available to him refer to as the Mir space station. Though the continued existence of the primitive space station was short lived as one of the squadron's gunboats opens fire on the station ending its existence in an instant.

Even on a single planet, homing in on a single human would have been like searching for a needle in a haystack. However, he had obtained a rather useful program from an information broker who obtained it from a quarian. The ultimate irony of this program was that the stolen program had been developed by one of Shepard's most constant team member, Tali Zorah vas Normandy nar Rayya. Apparently, she had developed the program as a covert means to keep track of Shepard.

"Do you have a location on Shepard?" Balak asked.

"We isolated her signal to a small settlement on the North American continent." The subordinate replied. "Unfortunately, some sort of interference is detected at the location. We won't be able to detect the signal and home in on our target when we get with the range of the interference."

"We won't need to." Balak said. "Shepard will come to us."

"How sir?"

"I'll make her."

(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)

Colonel Jack O'Neill ran into the control center of Stargate Command and saw his commanding officer and his team's second in command looking at a monitor. Alarms had been blaring for the last few minutes and he was curious what was wrong.

"Am I missing something?" He asked.

"NASA has lost contact with the Russian Space Station, Mir." General Hammond informed his second in command.

"Okay, so maybe the Russians should stop shopping at Radio Shack for communication gear." He replied trying to lighten the mood.

"It gets worse, Jack." Samantha told her superior officer.

She entered a command onto a computer and a recording began to play.

_"Houston Control, this is Mir. I'm seeing something strange out here."_

_ "Mir, this is Houston Control. Can you clarify?"_

_ "Houston Control, I am seeing five...Houston, I think I'm seeing five boxy ships. Whoever designed them didn't bother making them look good."_

_ "Mir, what color are they?"_

_ "Houston Control, they're more of a metallic silver color but they looked like they've seen some use. Houston, why were you asking me about the color?"_

_ "Mir, just curious. Are they attempting to contact?"_

_ "Negative, Houston Control. They seem to just be sitting still almost as if they're trying to figure out what to do next. Wait a minute..."_

_ "Mir, what's wrong?"_

_ "Mir, I repeat, what's wrong?"_

_ "Houston Control, I think they just-"_

_**Static**_

___"Mir."_

_**Static**_

___"Mir."_

_**Static**_

___"My God, Joseph, please respond."_

_**Static**_

"We're under attack." O'Neill said.

"A few minutes after the destruction of the Russian Space Station, this unknown race began to destroy every military satellite we have in orbit over the United States." Hammond informed him. "Before we lost our last one though, we were able to find out where they might be headed. A small town outside of Los Angeles called Sunnydale."

"Damn, I have family there." O'Neill replied.

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It had been a few days since the torching of the Sunset Club and the Scooby Gang was in the library. Amalia had provided the group with omni-tools which everyone including Giles accepted. Giles was actually the most reluctant especially when it came to the fact that a chip had to be implanted in each of his palms in order to manipulate any of the holographic interfaces that the technology required. Willow laughed as she realized what game Miss Calender had found on the omni-tool.

"You're playing Angry Birds again, aren't you?" She asked the computer teacher.

The computer teacher turned off her omni-tool and blushed. "That game is addictive."

"It almost caused an intergalactic incident when Grand Theft Auto was released on Palavan." Willow told her.

"I don't doubt that." Giles said. "After reading from that codex you gave me, a militaristic society with what was essentially a counter culture game in their midst. It must have ruffled a few feathers."

Before anyone could reply, a shot rang out from nowhere. Jenny looked down at her chest as a dark spot began to grow against her clothes. She fell to the floor as everyone rushed over to her except for Willow. Willow was looking right at the shooter, a batarian in a combat green armor, who was pointed his pistol right at her.

"Looks like I get the bounty on you, Shepard." The batarian said to her.

The dark purple indicative of biotics struck the batarian and pulled him away before another biotic attack slammed him into the floor. His attempt to get back to his feet was ended as Amalia fired three shots into his chest.

"I'm sorry." Amalia said as Giles slowly stood back up. "I sincerely wish I could have gotten here sooner or even warned you via the comms but the batarians are jamming transmissions."

"This is all your fault, you bloody bint!" Giles snapped at her. "If you hadn't granted Willow's wish..."

"Then everything would all be sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows but we both know that the world does not work like that." Amalia replied. "The universe is a cruel place but people can make it better for each other."

Willow's eyes never left the dead batarian and panic began to rack her body. Amalia saw that and went over to her. She knelt down in front of the teenager and forced Willow's gaze to meet her own.

"Willow...Shepard, this is not Mindoir and you are not the scared little girl who ran for her life as all she knew was destroyed around her. You are Commander Willow Shepard, the first human Spectre, the undisputed queen bitch of the galaxy." Amalia said to her trying to gauge the reaction she was seeing on the redhead's face. "Sunnydale is the collective memories of Mindoir but it isn't your colonial home. You couldn't save Mindoir but you can save Sunnydale."

Willow nodded to Amalia and stood up out of the chair. She walked into the book cage where she had been keeping her armor and weapons. A couple of minutes passed before she came back out ready for battle.

"You guys should stay here or better yet, find someplace to hide." Willow told them.

"Willow, we're not going to just let you face those things alone." Buffy said. "We're going to help."

"Buffy, how many times have you told Xander and me to run when vampires come around?" Willow asked. "You are not a soldier."

Buffy pointed at Amalia. "She isn't either."

"No, I'm a powerful biotic and I have years of combat experience involving people shooting at me." Amalia replied. "You are a sixteen year old mystically enhanced girl who's combat experience mostly consists of shoving wooden stakes into vampires chests. I suppose that could work provided the batarians don't shoot you first."

"Buffy, I know that you're use to being the one charging in to fight the bad guys but this fight isn't one you know how to win." Willow told her. "Let me do my job."

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The SSV Normandy SR-2 tore through space like a bullet fired from a Black Widow sniper rifle. Flight Lieutenant Jeff Monreau worked the controls of the frigate like an artist as he made corrections to the course he set faster than the Normandy's artificial intelligence and his girlfriend could. He knew he was probably pushing the Normandy past the ship's maximum rated safe speed and for once, he didn't care.

"Engineering, I need more power." He said into the comm.

_"I'm givin' her all she's got!"_ Donnelly exclaimed.

Before Joker could respond, an audible smack could be heard.

_"Gabby, why'd you smack me?"_ Donnelly asked his girlfriend.

_"Who do you think you are, Montgomery Scott?"_ Gabrielle Daniels asked him rhetorically. _"He was the man."_

_ "I thought I was the man."_ Ken said.

_"Please, Scotty is the ultimate engineer."_ Gabrielle replied.

"Not to break up this argument but can I get that power?" Joker asked.

_"Joker, we can't risk stressing the drive anymore than we are already."_ Adams said finally speaking up. _"What would be the use of getting there if we can't get the Commander out of there?"_

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The original plan had been to sweep the school going room to room in a standard search pattern. After finding Principal Snyder with a hole in his chest that you could have drove a truck through as well as a black girl who she didn't recognize who seemed to have been killed by a biotic attack with a wooden stake in her hand, they found a group of batarians who had herded students into the gym.

"How do you want to handle this?" Amalia asked Willow in a low whisper.

"Well, we could go in there guns blazing and probably get half the hostages killed." Willow replied. "Or, we could do this."

Without waiting for a reply, Willow strolled into the gym and the batarians immediately reacted to her. Though the reactions of the batarians were varied, one of the reactions would be one she'd remember for a very long time.

"Oh shit! It's her!" A batarian yelled. "RUN! SHE'S GOING TO KILL US ALL!"

The batarian in question screamed like a little girl before leaping out the second story window of the gym. Willow looked over at the batarian who she assumed was the leader of this small group and smirked. The apparent leader seemed a bit ashamed.

"He's my sister's kid." He replied. "She made me bring him."

"My sympathies." Willow replied.

The leader grabbed Harmony and held a pistol to her head using her as a shield between himself and Willow. Harmony, at best, seemed rather annoyed.

"Oh come on, you grab the one person in this room that she would should." Harmony snapped at the batarian.

The batarian leader looked over at Willow. "Is that true?" He asked.

"Maybe a little." Willow admitted. "Who's in charge?"

"It's a little insulting for you to not think I'm in charge." He replied.

"Maybe but I know your type. You don't actually want to be here but someone else got you to come." Willow said to him before her expression darkened. "Because you know my reputation and what I am capable of."

The people being held hostage began to stare at each other bewildered about what they were hearing. Most of the students had known Willow for years and for these aliens to be so afraid of her was mind boggling.

"Saren, the geth, Sovereign, the Collectors, Cerberus, the Reapers." Willow said glaring at him. "Do you really want to be added to that list?

"No, I told Balak that-"

"Balak, somehow I knew that bastard had to have been involved." Willow said. "Look, you don't want to be here. I understand that. Let the hostages go and you can leave."

"You're serious." He replied.

"Once I give my word, I don't go back on it." Willow told him. "But if I find out anyone has gone missing, I will hunt each and every one of you down myself."

"Release them." The leader said to his men. "We're leaving."

"What about Balak?" One of his men asked.

The leader looked over to the man before firing the pistol he had been pointing at Harmony's head in the batarian's face. A hole was now between the questioning batarian's eyes and he fell to the ground.

"Somehow, I don't think Balak is going to be a problem." He said.

The batarians filed out of the gym and once they were gone, Cordelia went over to her.

"What the hell was that?" Cordelia asked.

"I was being myself." Willow replied.

Harmony looked as though reality as she knew it was coming to an end which was an accurate way to describe it. Willow was about to try to say something to calm down the former hostages when her omni-tool began to chirp indicating that a recorded message was being sent to her. She activated the message and a holographic image of her mother was projected.

_"What do you want from me?"_ Her mother asked only for a pistol to appear in the projection and shoot her twice in the chest.

Willow fell to her knees and began to cry as she saw her father suffer the same fate. She continued to weep until the projection shifted to Balak who seemed to sneer into the camera.

_"Guess you can't save everyone, Shepard."_

Her hands went to her face as tears rolled down her face. She couldn't help it. She wanted to be strong. She wanted to say some kind of bad-ass line like "But who is going to save you?" but she couldn't muster any of that up.

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Buffy led Xander and Giles down the hall towards the gym. Despite the fact she believed Willow knew what she was doing, she wanted to help.

_Now I know how Xander and Willow feel._ She thought to herself.

As they neared the gym, they saw a group of seven people approaching the gym as well. They appeared to be heavily armed and four of them were obviously alien. The three humans seemed to be quite comfortable with the four aliens and possibilities began to race through Buffy's mind. Everything from old enemies from her best female friend's old life to a mercenary group sent to kill Willow. Before Giles or Xander could offer any opinion, she charged towards the frog/reptile looking alien in white armor. She shoved the monstrous alien into the lockers and proceeded to kick the legs out from another alien with a scarred face holding a sniper rifle. The large tanned man with the military style grabbed her from behind only for her to slam the back of her head into the back of his nose. Buffy freed herself from his bear hug grip and readied herself to attack the blue alien chick who glowed with the dark purple that she associated with biotics when she saw the frog/reptile alien thing get back up.

"I AM KROGAN!"

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Amalia and Cordelia tried to console Willow over her loss but both of them were at a loss for words. Neither of them had a similar experience. Amalia began to think of her own parents and while they had died over two hundred years ago. Her own induction into the ranks of D'Hoffryn's vengeance demons had taken place during the American Revolution when she had cursed her absent lover's luck. It helped the American Rebels as her absent lover happened to be on General Cornwallis' staff.

"I AM KROGAN!"

Willow's head shot back up as the loud yell seemed to shake her out of the depressed state she had been in. She jumped to her feet and bolted for the door that the yell had seemed to come from with her former comforters quickly behind her. Her gaze fell upon Grunt who was on top of Buffy. She saw her friend work her feet to plant them on top of the krogan's chest. Before Willow could react, Buffy used her mystically enhanced strength to launch the genetically enhanced super soldier krogan off of her. She quickly noticed Tali bringing her shotgun up to bear on her friend so Willow grabbed her pistol and fired it into the ceiling. This brought the fight to a standstill as everyone turned to look at Willow.

"Okay, why in there a little girl dressed up like the Commander?" James asked. "I mean she definitely-"

"Her name was Lola. She was a showgirl." Willow replied in a slightly singing voice.

James Vega looked startled which made Ashley laugh. It felt good to Willow to see Ashley laugh. After all they had been through, it was good to see joy on her face.

"Commander Shepard. Captain of the Normandy. First human Spectre. Savior of the Citadel." Willow said catching Ashley's attention as well as Garrus'. "You're looking at a god, back from the dead."

Ashley's face was shocked as she tried to figure out how the teenager could know what was said on Horizon as she saw the teenager turn her attention towards Garrus.

"Garrus, you making any money off the vids yet?" She asked.

"No, they're still in production." Garrus replied. "Good to see you again, Shepard."

"You too, Garrus." She said with a smile.

Tali was rather skeptical. "Garrus, how can you say she's Shepard?" She asked the turian. "She's the age I was when we helped Shepard defeat Saren and Sovereign."

Willow turned to the quarian. "Tali, I have three words for you." She said. "Emergency induction port."

Tali stepped back and everyone could tell she was embarrassed by that as she fell silent and rubbed her hands together. Willow turned to Liara and was about to say something that would have proved to Liara that she was who she was when the asari grabbed her by the front of her armor kissed her lips. She pulled the asari closer to her as the kiss deepened.

"I think Liara's convinced that she's Shepard." Garrus said with a slight laugh.

"Oh that's Liara." Buffy said.

"Gee, you think." Cordelia replied. "Willow only showed her a hologram of her a few days ago."

"Aren't you going to question whether or not she is who we think she is, Miranda?" Garrus asked the former Cerberus operative.

"No need." Miranda said as she deactivated her omni-tool. "I already checked her for the implants from Project Lazarus."

Liara pushed slightly away from Willow but still held onto her. The asari knew there was something wrong.

"Shepard, you're crying." She said.

Before Willow could answer her, Liara's gaze fell onto Buffy, Xander, Cordelia, and Giles. Anger surged in her as she readied a singularity to strike them down with but Willow knocked her to the ground.

"Liara, what the hell are you doing?" Willow asked.

"They aren't them, Shepard." Liara said as she struggled to get out from under Willow's grip.

"Aren't who?" Ashley asked as she and Garrus pointed their assault rifles at the other group.

"Liara, it's not what you think." Willow told her as she got off her alien girlfriend and helped her back to her feet.

Liara pointed at Buffy. "She was captured by the batarians at Mindoir." Liara said. "You and Cordelia found her three years after you joined the Alliance military. A batarian had used her as his favorite 'toy' for years. She killed herself three weeks later. Why does this person look like your old friend Buffy?"

Buffy stared at Liara perplexed as the asari continued her big reveal of their counterparts' fates that Willow never told them.

"Xander was killed on Mindoir as he tried to protect you." Liara said before nodding at him. "Thank you for that by the way and you and Cordelia hunted down and killed Giles."

"Excuse me," Giles said. "Willow failed to mention that."

Garrus's brow furrowed and he looked over at Giles. "You actually call her by her first name. That's like an unwritten rule of the galaxy." He said. "No one calls her by her first name except for maybe Liara but I think that's only in private. Even the Reapers didn't call her by her first name."

"Everyone stop." Willow exclaimed. "Liara, it's the same reason why I'm like how I am now. Amalia told me that when I was in the Crucible, I somehow restarted the universe but I somehow saved ours but I couldn't access it."

"About sixteen years ago, Shepard was reborn as Willow Rosenberg. She didn't have any knowledge of her previous life until Halloween which a dark wish she made coupled with a spell cast by a chaos mage caused the 'save file' to load." Amalia explained. "However, accommodations were made when you take into account the new worlds and species that were native."

"Is that why you look like a Miranda clone?" Garrus asked.

"It is which I am very grateful for." Amalia said as she looked at her own body. "I use to be as flat as a pancake."

Realization dawned on Liara. "Your parents, I'm sorry." She said.

"Don't be, Liara." Willow replied as she turned her attention back to the members of the Scooby Gang. "Guys, please stay here."

_"Shepard, I am detecting substantial activity around Sunnydale's City Hall as well as several destroyed vehicles."_ EDI said. _"I believe this is where Balak is."_

"Thank you, EDI." Willow said. "Anyone have any idea why the military hasn't responded?"

_"Sensors are detecting what we believe to be a powerful electromagnetic pulse emitter."_ EDI replied. _"I believe it has been modified to emit a weaker than normal pulse that is capable of sending out a pulse every five minutes that reaches a distance of two hundred and fifty kilometers away."_

_ "I guess that would put a slight impact on reaction time."_ Joker added.

"Joker, it's good to hear you." Willow said with a smile.

_"Likewise, Commander."_ Joker said. _"Really sucks that you're sixteen again."_

Buffy walked over to Willow. "Dawn went to City Hall on her school field trip today." Buffy told her.

"Don't worry, she'll be okay." Willow replied.

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"What do you mean we can't get into the area?" O'Neill asked.

"Sir, everything within a one hundred and fifty five mile radius of Sunnydale is being hit with an electromagnetic pulse every five minutes." Samantha replied. "We've received reports of riots, plane crashes, and emergencies of several types occurring throughout the area. Unless we go in on foot, we're can't get there."

Feeling dejected, O'Neill walked away from the blonde haired woman and leaned up against a wall. He didn't like the feeling of helplessness that he was feeling over not being able to help his family.

"You are worried about your family, O'Neill." Teal'c said as he approached him.

"My sister and her family live in Sunnydale." He replied to the jaffa. "I can't help but worry about them."

"If they are anything like you, O'Neill," Teal'c said to him. "then I believe they will be just fine."

"I hope you're right." O'Neill said. "I hope you're right."

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Balak cursed loudly as his top three lieutenants were gunned down in an instant. He ducked for cover as two more of his men were taken out. One of his men took a shot to his left knee and fell to the floor. The man reached out for him begging for him to drag him to safety but another sniper round took his head clear off.

_Shepard is suppose to be the only one here._ He thought. _How in the hell are there three snipers out there?_

His wish was answered as he saw Shepard leap through the doors of the room he had the hostages in. He brought up his assault rifle as she rolled but his world ended as she proved that she was the faster shot. Four bullets went into each of his eyes and he fell to the ground.

Willow holstered her pistol and looked over at the hostages. She noted that the mayor was dead as well as the chief of police but the rest of the hostages seemed okay. Her eyes went to Dawn and noticed that she had on a bulky tan vest.

"Dawn, stay right there." She said. "Everyone else, get out now."

The hostages fled out of the hall as Willow ran over to Dawn. She activated her omni-tool and after a scan of the vest, she sent out a message.

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**BALAK STRAPPED BOMB TO DAWN**

**DEVICE CONTAINS A PERIMETER ALARM**

**KEEP EVERYONE BACK**

**NOT ENOUGH TIME TO HACK DETONATOR**

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The locking mechanism proved to not be booby trapped and she was happy to be able to slip the vest off of her best friend's sister. Dawn looked up at her grateful.

"Dawn, run quickly." Willow ordered.

Dawn did as she asked and ran towards the outside door. Willow took a look at the timer as it counted down in batarian numerals. She dropped the vest and ran towards Dawn. Willow wrapped her arms around Dawn and ran faster than she had thought she was capable of. She was almost at the door when the bomb detonated and...


	3. Aftermath

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, MASS EFFECT, OR STARGATE SG-1. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER IS OWNED BY JOSS WHEDON. MASS EFFECT IS OWNED BY BIOWARE AND ELECTRONIC ARTS. STARGATE SG-1 IS OWNED BY MGM. UNDER SIEGE IS OWNED BY WARNER BROTHERS.

Chapter Three

Aftermath

-From The Journal Of Alexander Lavelle Harris-

-January 28th, 2083-

The media proclaimed her a hero that day. She was a young teenage girl who sacrificed her life to stop a group of disguised terrorists who were attacking her hometown. She was the new All-American Hero. Hasbro even began to release a new GI Joe action figure based on her. Damn, Sunnydale Syndrome at its finest.

Regardless, we let it slide because the truth would have been too strange for them to understand at the time. Maybe her uncle and her grandfather might have understood at the time but we couldn't take that chance.

The reality was that it would have been a lot worse if Willow's old team hadn't shown up when they did. When Willow talked about them, everything she said about them made me want to actually meet them but when I was speechless when it happened.

Garrus looked like a fun guy to be around. He had a cool confidence that made me glad that Willow had considered him to be one of her best friends. Apparently, it was almost a Butch and Sundance type of relationship. He had been with her since the beginning from hunting down Saren to fighting the Collectors to fighting for the entire galaxy in defeating the Reapers. Loyalty like that was commendable.

Ashley was hot. There was no other way to say it. Willow had told me that Ashley use to slightly anti-alien partly due to her family history. I can't blame General Williams for what he had done and it wasn't fair for his family to be blacklisted because of it. Fortunately, Willow mentored Ashley while they hunted for Saren and Ashley became a Spectre herself during the Reaper War. I guess that must mean that Willow was her Obi-Wan.

James Vega was one big dude. Another fun guy who looked like he could be cast in any of the old Arnold Schwarzenagger movies as Arnold's old part. The man was a walking tank. Willow said that James was another guy she wouldn't mind having at her back and I believed her.

Miranda was another hot woman. She's someone I feel like I owe a debt to for bringing Willow back from the dead when she did. She's also the person who Amalia dressed as for Halloween so that makes me scared of her.

In a lot of ways, Tali reminded me a lot of the pre-Halloween Willow. Many of the qualities each of them shared were too similar to ignore. There was something about her that drew my attention to her.

Now, Liara T'soni was a good reason to bitchslap any 'xenobiologists'. Liara was and still is one beautiful asari. I didn't believe at first how deep the relationship between Liara and Willow was at first but as I got to know the asari more and see how much they cared for one other; Helen Keller could have seen it.

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Senator Robert Kinsey couldn't believe this trip had to be made. He had heard the news of the Sunnydale incident and was heartbroken. His son, though he had been so estranged from him that his son went to the effort to completely change his name, and his family had been reported dead in the attack. While he hadn't spoken or even been in contact with his son for years, it had been through the efforts of his granddaughter, Willow, that he kept up with current events concerning them.

Willow had even acted as an unofficial political adviser at times through letters and phone conversations they had. She was smart as a whip and there were many times he had cursed himself for not seeking custody of his granddaughter from his son by using his political career as an excuse. There had been too many tear jerking letters where she had expressed her loneliness.

But now she was gone but she had apparently chosen to go out in style. He knew he had to give her credit for that. According to all reports, his granddaughter had fought off the attackers and saved countless lives. She had died a hero.

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To say that he was pissed would have been an understatement as he pulled his car into the parking lot of Lawson Mechanics. He had gone to the morgue to get Jenny's body only to find out the body had been released to Amalia. It was surprising when he had reached the corporation that it used to be the former CRD facility but for some reason it appeared as though it had been like it was for months. He entered through the front door and was surprised when the receptionist greeted him by name.

"Doctor Giles, Director Lawson is waiting for you." The smiling bright eyed receptionist said. "Please proceed to the medical wing."

She activated her omni-tool and sent him a map of the facility including a 'way point' that he could follow to get there. He was glad to be away from her as he managed to get away from the receptionist. Though he wasn't comfortable with using an omni-tool, the one thing he had liked about it had been the omni-blade, the map was extremely valuable. It didn't take him long to find Amalia.

"Good, you're here." Amalia said before she turned away from him. "Follow me."

"Now see here, I want to know what you've done with Miss Calender's body." Giles exclaimed. "You had no right to take her."

"Shepard would want her to have the best medical care." Amalia told him. "Didn't I tell you to follow me?"

"She died." Giles reminded her. "You don't get _better_ from that without magic."

"Shepard did and look where she is now." Amalia replied. "Oh, and Rupert, you might want to remember Clarke's Law."

"Her name is Willow." Giles told her.

"To you and the denizens of this small town, she is, but to the rest of the galaxy as well as myself," Amalia said. "she is Commander Shepard. She is the hero of the entire galaxy. Besides, I thought you were concerned about Miss Calender."

"Where is she?" Giles asked as he followed the woman down the hall.

Amalia stopped in front of a door that she opened via a panel on the door. "In here." She said.

Giles entered the room to see Jenny laying down on a hospital bed. She appeared to be breathing normally. His righteous rage went out like an extinguished fire as he went to her side. She opened her eyes and looked up at him.

"You bosh'tet." She said before a perplexed expression formed on her face. "Why did I say that word?"

"While you were sleeping, there was activity in the part of your brain related to memory." Amalia replied. "It's possible that your death and subsequent resurrection may have unlocked memories you may have had from your counterpart. It would be safe to assume that your counterpart wasn't human but a quarian on her pilgrimage."

"Her counterpart could have been human." Giles said. "Just because she knows a quarian word doesn't mean anything."

"True but when you take into account other factors, a quarian is the only thing she could have been." Amalia said. "There was the body of a young female quarian found on Mindoir identified as Janna Kal'Derash nar Qwib Qwib."

At the mention of the name, Jenny stiffened slightly from the recognition of the name. Giles assumed that it was from her alternate's memories but that wasn't the case. She had a feeling that Amalia knew the truth about who she truly was.

"And what about me?" Giles asked. "Liara mentioned that Willow and Cordelia hunted me down and killed me."

"Your counterpart sold the Mindoir Colonial Defense codes to the batarian slavers who attacked Mindoir. It took several years but eventually, they found out where you were and hunted you down on Omega. According to the files Miranda Lawson had access to, Shepard fed your body to vorcha." Amalia informed him noting the look of disappointment on his face. "You did ask."

"I know but..." Giles replied.

"You expected your counterpart to be similar how you are. I'm sorry to tell you that isn't the case." Amalia said. "I do have a spell that can give you your counterpart's memories but you'll end up remembering everything that has happened."

"No, thank you." Giles replied.

"I was shot in the heart." Jenny said trying to understand how she was alive.

Amalia rolled her eyes. "I have the memories and knowledge of the person who was the director of Project Lazarus." She explained. "A bullet through the heart would have been considered minor damage in comparison to what the Project had to deal with. I used a little bit of bio-synthetic fusion to repair your heart."

"Thank you." Jenny said.

"There is no need to thank me, Miss Calender." Amalia replied. "You are among the people who are precious to Shepard. I'm required to do my best to keep all of you alive."

"Willow wouldn't have held it against you." Giles told her.

"Perhaps, but Shepard would." Amalia quickly informed him. "You are members of her team and that is the closest thing she ever had to family. During the Reaper War, the salarians tried to offer her a back-room deal that would have greatly aided in the war against the Reapers and possibly saved countless human lives but she refused them."

"Why?" Jenny asked.

"There were three reasons. Doctor Mordin Solus, Urdnot Wrex, and Urdnot Grunt." Amalia replied. "They were three members of her team at various points in her career as a Spectre. Wrex fought by her side against Saren. Mordin and Grunt helped her take down the Collectors. Shepard needed to get the krogan to help the turians fight the Reapers on Palaven and Wrex's condition was that the genophage would be cured."

"Genophage?" Giles asked.

"A bioweapon developed by the salarians and released by the turians during the Krogan Rebellions." Amalia informed him before she pinched the bridge of her nose with her right thumb and index finger. "Why am I explaining this? Did you even bother reading the rather complete codex I uploaded into your omni-tool just as I did every other omni-tool? Even Xander who by his academic records could be considered a mediocre student at best has almost memorized the damned thing. Granted, he's more worried about the galaxy in which his childhood friend is most familiar with but it's the overall principal of the thing."

"Something's troubling you." Giles said noting Amalia's disheveled appearance.

Amalia let out a breath. "I've been reviewing Sunnydale residents and matching them against the colonists on Mindoir at the time of the batarian attack." She said. "I've noticed...irregularities."

"Irregularities, like what?" Jenny asked.

"I went with the theory that whatever happened on the Crucible used Shepard's memories as a partial blueprint for the new universe. There are several people in Sunnydale who fall through the cracks of this idea. One of which is Buffy's mother." Amalia continued to explain. "I went to her gallery yesterday to purchase some art for my office. As a standard precaution, I slipped on my sunglasses which I have charmed to 'reveal souls'. Mrs. Summers stood out as her soul wasn't human. If I had to hazard a guess, I would say it was that of an asari matriarch. Mrs. Summers' counterpart had died giving birth to her second daughter leaving Hank Summers to raise both of them on Mindoir."

"I take it you have another guess to make." Giles said.

"If you want me to make another guess," Amalia replied. "I would hazard a guess at that the soul was that of Matriarch Benezia T'Soni."

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Cordelia leaned up against her locker still not believing that the school board had chosen to reopen the high school after what had happened. It seemed 'Sunnydale Syndrome' was in full effect. People had began to go about their activities though there were plans for the entire town to turn out to the funeral of Willow Rosenberg otherwise known as the heroic young woman who sacrificed her life to save her town from the costumed terrorists. Only a few people actually knew the truth and she wondered if anyone else realized it to.

_None of them realize that their hero is still alive and in a hospital light years away from Earth. _Cordelia thought. _If they knew the truth, they'd probably run screaming into the streets._

"I heard Amalia did something to give you back your counterpart's memories." Xander said to her as he approached her.

"Something involving water from the river of Memory and a lot of magic." Cordelia informed him. "It ended up doing more than what she expected."

"How so?" He asked.

"I had been under the impression that I was a soldier like Willow." She said. "I'm not. Actually, I was an engineer. I hacked computers, did field repairs, and tech attacked people a lot."

"You were a nerd." Xander replied not believing her.

"Hey," Cordelia said with a smile. "I could set you on fire with my omni-tool or freeze your ass. I was a bad ass nerd."

"Think Amalia might be able to reinforce the things I remember from my Uncle Casey?" Xander asked.

"Didn't you say your uncle was a Navy cook?" She asked.

"Yeah, but that was just to finish up his career. He was a Navy Seal." Xander replied. "He's been referred to as the best there is."

"Good to hear. From what I hear about Shepard's normal choice in teammates, your skill set will be more useful than mine." Cordelia said. "She won't have much use for me considering the quarian and the unshackled AI. It's not like she's not going to want another engineer when she has them."

"I'm sure Willow will want you to come with her." Xander said trying to console her. "Why are you suddenly calling her Shepard? She's still Willow."

"No, she's not. The person we knew as Willow Rosenberg is gone." Cordelia replied. "She's Shepard now."

"She's still Willow." Xander simply said.

"No, it's like an unwritten rule of the universe." She said. "No one calls her by her first name...ever."

"Ever?"

"Even people who are trying to kill her call her by her last name. People who've known her for years only use her last name." Cordelia replied. "It's just the way things are."

Cordelia and Xander cut off their conversation as the 'Cordettes' walked over to them as if they were on a mission. Harmony was leading the group on their approach.

"Okay, all of us know Rosenberg isn't dead so where the hell is she?" Harmony asked.

Xander was about to attempt a lie when Cordelia spoke up. "The crew of her ship came and picked her up. She's being taken care of by the best doctors in the galaxy." She replied to her friend. "She's now light years away from Earth."

_They're not going to believe that._ Xander thought. _Even if it is the truth, they're going to be suffering from Sunnydale Syndrome._

"That's good." Aura said.

"What can we do to help?" Harmony asked.

"Why?" Xander asked.

"She saved us from those weird four eyed ali-"

"Batarians." Cordelia interrupted her. "They're called batarians."

"Okay, she saved us from the batarians and then disappeared." Harmony said. "So, why is she listed as dead?"

"Because, Harmony, the truth would scare the living crap out of people." Cordelia told her.

"People are smart." Harmony replied.

"A person is smart." Xander said. "People are dumb, ignorant, and fearful. They wouldn't want to comprehend multiple alien races out there."

"But we want to help." Harmony said. "We know you're planning on helping her. We want to help too."

"Consider yourselves drafted." Cordelia replied. "I hope you know what you're getting yourselves into."

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"And now, Willow's grandfather, Senator Robert Kinsey will speak."

"What the hell?" O'Neill quietly asked as he saw his nemesis take the podium and begin to speak to the crowd.

"Jack, did you know that-"

"No, I didn't."

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Slowly, her eyes opened and she looked to her right to see a familiar view of the Presidium. A smile formed on her face as she felt safe where she was.

"It's good to see you're awake, Commander." A familiar voice said to her as the voice's owner came into the room. "How are you feeling?"

"Like a bomb hurled me through the air, Doctor Chakwas." Willow replied.

Chakwas let out a laugh. "You never cease in trying to give me more work, do you Shepard?" She said. "It's good to see you again."

"Same here, Karen." Willow replied. "How bad am I hurt?"

"Enough to warrant emergency surgery at Huerta Memorial with Miss Lawson assisting myself and Doctor Michel." The elder doctor said. "You had more broken bombs from the impact than Joker receives in a month."

"Well, I always aim to impress." Willow replied wincing slightly. "So, how long do I have till I can leave?"

"A few weeks at least." Chakwas said. "I am clearing you for visitors however."

"I recovered that quickly." Willow said surprised.

"Possibly not but I fear for my life if I try to keep the highly trained individuals who seem to gather around you out of this room for too long." She replied. "Why couldn't you get a normal friend?"

Willow laughed and winced soon after. "I do have normal friends." She said defensively.

"Though how many of them are willing to accompany you to the places that you normally go to?" Chakwas asked.

Willow stared at her. "Oh please, I do not count as normal." The doctor informed her.

"Well, I didn't want to be the one to tell you." Willow said. "It's always better if you realize it yourself."

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"O'Neill, you identified the dark haired young man as one of your niece's best friends." Teal'c said. "He is not acting as though he is in grief."

O'Neill looked over at Xander. He had met him several times before today and he knew how much of a friend he was to his niece. The young man seemed to be simply acting as though he was grieving but to O'Neill's trained eye; it was fraudulent. As he watched the teenager, he tried to rationalize Xander's apparent lack of grief as one of the stages of grief but it became clear that wasn't the case.

"He knows something." O'Neill said as they left the graveyard.

"Unfortunately Colonel, General Hammond just called." Carter said. "He wants us back at the SGC immediately. A situation has developed."

"Great."

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The door opened and Liara walked into the hospital room. She looked over to the bed where the woman she loved lay and regret stabbed at her. Thoughts ran through her mind of whether or not she could have done anything to have lessened Shepard's injuries or even prevented them in the first place. It was much like when the original Normandy had been destroyed only with one upside this time. Shepard was still alive.

"Hey, Liara." Shepard said to her.

Liara walked over to her and held Shepard's right hand. Every fiber of her being told her that despite Shepard's current apparent age, she was still Shepard.

"I hate seeing you like this." She said to her. "I feel like it's my fault."

"Liara, is Dawn okay?" Shepard asked.

A smile crossed her face as the question ensured her further on the identity of the person she was speaking with.

"She's fine. You took the brunt of the blast for her." Liara replied. "Though it wasn't easy convincing Buffy to let us take you here, Xander was the one who made her realize that late twentieth century Earth medicine wouldn't be enough to completely heal you. Though Giles tried to say that we didn't have the right, Amalia told him to be quiet or else risk the wrath of an asari maiden in love."

Shepard laughed at the thought.

"Shepard, how is any of this possible?" She continued. "None of this makes any sense. The Citadel appears as though the Reapers never attacked as well as the other worlds except for the batarian worlds."

"I don't know, Liara." Shepard said to her. "The last thing I remember was sitting down next to Anderson after the Illusive Man shot himself."

"You talked him into shooting himself, didn't you?" Liara asked rhetorically. "That is definitely something you would do."

"Liara, you can call me Willow." Willow said. "You know that."

"I know." Liara replied. "I'm more use to calling you by your last name though."

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"Wait a minute, my mother didn't dress up as anything for Halloween." Buffy said to Amalia. "How in the hell could she have the soul of this Benzeenie woman?"

"Benezia, and I believe it has to do with Shepard's reboot of the universe." Amalia replied. She walked over towards the center table of the library. "I don't have all the details and I doubt anyone does but that doesn't matter. Your mother's soul is that of Matriarch Benezia T'Soni and she needs to be told what to expect or else the situation would get worse."

"How could it get worse?" Buffy asked.

"I don't know how Shepard could standing being around you." Amalia said as she brought her hands to the side of her own head. She rubbed her head for a moment before she lowered her hands. "Buffy, what do you think will happen when your mother begins to remember the life of an alien woman who has lived for hundreds of years?"

"She's gonna go nuts." Xander said.

"What's an asari matriarch?"Buffy asked.

"It's the third stage of life asari go through as they age. The first stage, maiden, is generally like their teenage years would be for us. The second stage, matron, is when they settle down to raise a family. The third stage, matriarch, is when they're considered great advisors and great leaders. Some asari matriarchs act as diplomatic ambassadors." Cordelia said. "Benezia was one of the most respected matriarchs up until Willow killed her."

Everyone looked over at Cordelia who shrugged. "What? I'm the closest thing she had to a friend in both universes before...Akuze."

Cordelia rubbed her stomach as Buffy turned on her. "And how do you even remember that?"

"I have a ritual which calls upon the waters of the river of memory to restore obviously lost memories." Amalia explained. "The ritual not only restored Cordelia's memories but also the genetic enhancements she received in that universe as well."

"But my mother can't know about this." Buffy pleaded.

"How else is it going to be explained that she has the soul of a woman who was nearly a thousand years old when she died?" Amalia asked her. "Without any explaination or help of any kind, your mother will be in danger of losing her mind. If that happens, the Watcher's Council will step in. I can't let that happen."

"Is that a threat, Miss Lawson?" Giles asked.

"A promise, Doctor Giles." Amalia replied. "I can't let anything happen to Shepard's friends."

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Hours later, Amalia sat at her desk looking at files on her computer as a dark-skinned bald headed man walked into her office. A jagged scarred cut ran down his face coming from just above his left eye down to his jawline. He was dressed in a dark blue suit.

"So, spent some times with the kiddies again, Miss Lawson?" He asked her.

"Yes, I did, Elias." Amalia replied. "It didn't go very well."

She shifted her attention to the man that she had hired as the head of security for Lawson Industries. "You read the file I gave you on Shepard." She said. "What do you think her reaction would be if anything happened to one of her friends?"

"Miss Lawson, I have fought battles on five different continents for fifteen years against what most would consider impossible odds." Elias said. "That being said, after reading what this Commander Shepard has done; I'd be trying to find the quickest means to get out of the country. Barbados is nice this time of year."

"How are your men handling the new weapons and armor?" Amalia asked.

"Half of my men are wanting to stay on because they're hoping you have better weapons in 'the back'." Elias informed her. "Half of the other half of my men are wondering what your gameplan is."

"And the remaining quarter of your men?" Amalia asked.

"They don't care." He replied.

"There will be some action very soon. The slayer's mother will begin to remember Benezia's life which may cause her to become unbalanced." Amalia said as she rotated her computer monitor around showing floorplans to a complex of some kind. A question nagged at the man.

"Miss Lawson, why don't you use more advanced technology?" He asked.

"Camoflauge, Mister Kingston." Amalia replied. "As Lawson Industries becomes more prominent, I can upgrade with more advanced technology that will leave my competitors in the dust."

He turned his attention back to the floorplan. "What am I looking at?" He asked.

"The headquarters of the International Watchers' Council." Amalia replied. "I plan on killing every man and woman inside before removing the library, looting the vaults, and planting a one kiloton nuclear device in the council chambers with Travers handcuffed to the bomb along with the rest of the senior council."

Elias smiled. "You don't fuck around."

"In what I am charged to do, I don't have the luxury to fuck around, Mister Kingston." Amalia said. "How long will it take you to get your men ready to do what needs to be done?"

"Provided those Kodiaks of yours are used, I'd say seven hours." Elias replied. "I take it that you will be coming along."

"I need to make sure." Amalia said.

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Her hospital room doors opened again and she watched Garrus walk into the room. He sat down next to the bed.

"Come back from the dead, restart the universe, what is going to be your next trick, Shepard?" He asked her with a smile.

"Hell, Garrus." She replied. "I was going to try walking on water."

"Actually, that one's been done." Garrus said as he saw Shepard raise an eyebrow. "Back when I was in C-Sec, I saw an asari do it with her biotics. I heard a few humans nearby say it was sacraligious."

"It's good to see you again, Garrus." Willow said. "We have to stop meeting like this."

"I don't know," Garrus replied. "some of my best adventures have been meeting up with you after you returned from the dead."

"Garrus, I know you and everybody expect me to suddenly be the big badass Spectre that you all know and love but..." Willow said.

"I don't expect you to suddenly be the hero of the galaxy, Shepard." Garrus replied. "That place that you regrew up had an...I guess the best thing I could say was that it had an evil spirit inhabiting the place. What was with that town anyway? That town makes Omega feel like Mayberry."

"You've watched Andy Griffith?" Willow asked.

"Blame Vega." He replied. "You didn't answer my question though."

"Sunnydale seems like your average California town but it does have one key landmark that wouldn't appear on any travel brochure." Willow said. "The high school lays on top of the Hellmouth."

"That doesn't sound good." Garrus said.

"Vampires and various other demons swarm Sunnydale and the only person who can stop them-"

"Is you." Garrus interrupted her.

"No, actually." Willow said. "She was the one who took you, Grunt, and James on back on Earth."

"So, she's magically enhanced." Garrus said as the hospital room doors opened. He turned to see Miranda standing there. "Miranda, what's wrong?"

She said nothing as she walked over to Willow's bed. The dark haired biotic leaned down and captured Willow's lips with her own. Garrus' jaw dropped as he tried to comprehend what was going on it front of him. After a few more moments passed, Miranda pulled away from Willow.

"I'm pregnant, Shepard," She said. "and according to the DNA results, you're the father."

A shocked look formed on Willow's face. "Oh..." She said. "...boy."

She promptly fainted.


	4. When I Remember Me

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, MASS EFFECT, OR STARGATE SG-1. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER IS OWNED BY JOSS WHEDON. MASS EFFECT IS OWNED BY BIOWARE AND ELECTRONIC ARTS. STARGATE SG-1 IS OWNED BY MGM. UNDER SIEGE IS OWNED BY WARNER BROTHERS.

Chapter Four

When I Remember Me

-From The Journal Of Alexander LaVelle Harris-

-February 1st, 2083-

One thing that I probably forgot to mention but that everyone who might be reading this would already know is that I am represent humanity on the Council. When I remember who I was all those years ago, I never could have seen myself in that position nor could anyone who knew me could.

It was much the same for Willow as I am told. She wasn't sure who she was anymore or who to turn to. Everyone she was around was part of her life as Shepard and she didn't have anyone around from her life as simply Willow Rosenberg. The person who offered the solution to the problem was actually Cordelia. The solution, though unorthodox and highly argued (especially by Liara), did work.

Looking back on it now, we shouldn't have been surprised when Amalia destroyed the Watcher's Council and killed the Watchers in England. She was always a paranoid person though I think it was more that she was scared what Willow would have done to her than what would happen to her otherwise.

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Cordelia walked into the kitchen that for some reason was attached to the training facility Amalia had built to see the strangest thing she thought she would ever see. Xander Harris was cooking and whatever he was cooking smelled great. He looked up at her as he put something in the oven.

"Hey Cordelia, how's the Cordettes' training?" He asked.

"It's going okay. I think that Harmony might make a very good Inflitrator." Cordelia replied. "She's taken to a sniper rifle like it was the last pair of Jimmy Choo's on sale."

"Scary." He said as he checked the oven's temperature. "I thought they might get hungry when they're done training for the day so I thought I'd whip up something."

"I thought you went through that ritual to gain the skills and memories of your special forces badass uncle not to become Martha Stewart." Cordelia said to him.

Xander laughed. "I did gain those skills and I tested them against a few of Amalia's mercs." He replied. "They're a little embarassed but my Uncle Casey finished his career in the Navy as a cook and he is a damn good cook."

"Shouldn't Amalia be here?" She asked.

"Boss lady said something about having business to take care of in England." Xander replied. "I do not what to know what she needs to do in the land of tweed."

Before she could reply, a very bland male voice spoke over the building's comm system. "There is a call coming through the QEC."

Cordelia recognized it as one of the VIs that Amalia had progammed to help handle some of the more complicated systems. Leaving Xander to his preparations, she left the training facility and headed towards the building where the QEC was housed. She was one of the few people on the planet that could use it.

"Okay, I'm here." She said as she entered the room.

The QEC activated and she saw Liara appear. The asari seemed tense about something.

"Liara, is something wrong?" Cordelia asked. "Is..."

"Shepard's fine." Liara said quickly. "She just came out of a meeting with the Council. They chose to uphold her Spectre status."

"Good for her." She replied. "But I don't think you would call for a simple update."

"No, but she thought she had to go back to the hospital. The turian councilor told a joke." Liara said with a smile on her face. "Cordelia, she doesn't seem like herself anymore. There is some problem she is having that she isn't letting anyone in on. She's acting like everything is normal but I can tell that something is bothering her."

"You need someone who she can't shield herself against." Cordelia replied. "I'd help but I'm a few hundred light years away. What about Anderson or that Kelly chick? Willow couldn't hide anything from Anderson and it seemed like the same with that Kelly chick."

"Kelly Chambers is still confirmed as dead and Anderson's status is still MIA." Liara informed her. "I need to find someone here who can drop her shields."

Cordelia closed her eyes, let out a breath, and rubbed her hands together. An idea had formed in her mind that sounded great in theory but trying to tell the idea to the asari over the QEC would be a lot easier than telling her in person.

"What about Sha'ira?" Cordelia asked.

"You want me to set up Shepard, the woman that I love, with the Consort!" Liara exclaimed. "Are you out of your mind?"

"I'm not saying have Willow sleep with her." Cordelia said as she tried to defend her position. "I'm saying that we use her gift of reading people to be able to get through to Willow. Besides, you should be thankful that she even met her before in the first place."

"I should be grateful!" Liara snapped at her.

"Yeah, because after my death," Cordelia snapped back at her. "Willow closed herself off from the very idea of ever finding love. Her encounter with Sha'ira reawakened that part of her and that was what allowed her to fall in love with you in the first place. She healed Willow which allowed you two to be together. If you can't be thankful for that, then you do not deserve to be with Willow."

Cordelia watched as the asari that Willow had referred to at times as having a mean streak longer than the distance between the Omega 4 relay and the Charon relay take a few breaths. The asari had turned her head away from her for a moment before she looked back at her.

"You're right, Cordelia." Liara replied.

"Of course I am." Cordelia said back to her.

"I'm just not comfortable by putting Shepard in the care of an asari prostitute." Liara told her.

"I don't blame you. I would be too." Cordelia said. "There's something else you need to know. Amalia would probably read me the riot act but I think you need to know that your mother has reincarnated as Joyce Summers. She thinks that it won't be long before she begins to remember her previous life and if she does without anyone informing her of the truth."

"She could go insane." Liara said before uttering a small curse in an asari dialect. "There's no way I could get to Earth now."

"You worry about Willow." Cordelia told her. "I'll worry about Joyce."

"Thank you." Liara replied.

"Yeah, I know." Cordelia said. "Shadow Broker out."

The look on the asari maiden's face was priceless as Cordelia terminated the call. She began to laugh as she walked out of the room.

_Cordelia Chase-1, Galaxy's Most Notorius Information Broker aka the Shadow Broker-0_

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Willow sat at a table on the Presidium Commons with an asari dish in front of her that Liara had turned her on to. It was made with spices and meat from a species of shark found on Thessia. At least, that was how Liara had explained it to her. She had thought about asking further at the time but thought against it.

"So, what's got you confused?" Aethyta asked.

The asari matriarch who was not only a bartender as well as a spying on Liara for the matriarchs but she was also Liara's father. She was more foul-mouthed than what she was use to when dealing with an asari matriarch but Willow saw that as part of her charm.

"I don't know," Willow replied. "maybe it's the fact that just a month ago I was a normal sixteen year old hacker who helped her best friend fight vampires."

"You, a hacker, somehow I see that as something you let that quarian friend of yours take care of." Aethyta said. "Thanks anyway for doing whatever you did. Dying is a real bitch."

"Don't I know it." Willow replied. "I'm still trying to figure myself out."

"Finding yourself in a world you don't understand can't be easy." The asari bartender said.

"That's the problem." Willow said back to her. "I understand this world perfectly. I may be sixteen again but I'm still Commander Shepard, Aethyta."

"Yeah, otherwise I don't think my little girl would be considered a child molester." She joked. "What I'm scared about is that I'm worried which me is the real me. If I had never made that wish and got the costume armor, would I have still become as strong as I had been when I was just Shepard?" Willow said to her. "Or would I have been a mousy little girl my entire life?"

That made Aethyta laugh. "Kid, you would have been the same no matter what." She said. "Even if you had went an entire lifetime without bringing all this back," She waved a hand around indicating the Citadel and everything else. "you still would have found the same spirit and drive that you've always had."

Willow looked down at her food for a few moments as she let Aethyta's words sink in. She smiled and looked back at her.

"And they laughed the blue off your ass." She said with a laugh.

"And now, I serve drinks." Aethyta replied. "It was nice talking to you, Shepard."

"Same to you." She replied.

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A hard slap across his face woke him up. Quentin Travers raised his head and noticed two very infuriating problems. One, he and the rest of the High Council of Watchers were handcuffed to a strange object in the center of the table. The second was the dark haired woman who lead the highly effective assault team that had invaded their headquarters. She smiled at him.

"Wake up, Quentin." She said.

"Who are you?! How dare you attack us?!" He shouted at her. "Do you have any idea who we are?!"

"Yes, and frankly, I don't give a damn." She replied. "You've been out for several hours which was long enough for my men to remove everything from the building that wasn't furniture. I then took a look around for any part of the décor I thought looked nice. Nice fifth century Persian rug by the way, Quentin. That will look great in my office."

"You're just a thief." Quentin said to her with a sneer. "That's all you are."

"No, I know of a thief would would have picked this place clean without anyone knowing she was here." The woman replied. "This is more along the lines of 'to the victor goes the spoils'. I'm pillaging. Besides, what I took will be of great use and doesn't need to be destroyed by the one kiloton nuclear device you and your associates are handcuffed to."

That statement got the attention of everyone in the room as they began to pull against their handcuffs in a vain attempt to gain their freedom. The dark haired woman laughed at them as well as a couple of the men dressed head to toe in some type of white combat armor.

"I am simply eliminating a threat. Of course, I don't consider you a threat to me." She continued. "What you might have done in the not so distant future could have had reprecussions on me because of the person I work for. She is someone who anyone would be suicidal to cross. If you did, she could potentially lead an army of beings that your dimunitive mind would believe were demons to destroy you. She's done it before."

Suddenly, a shot rang out from one of the armored men and Quentin saw Wyndham-Pryce grab his hand. The sound of a gun clattering to the floor was heard and the woman walked over and picked the weapon up.

"Walther PPK." She said as she pulled back the slide. She pointed the pistol at Wyndham-Pryce and fired. The man buckled and screamed in pain as if she'd shot him in a knee. "I believe Mister Harris would make a James Bond joke."

"You're from Sunnydale." He said to her.

"I see your doctorate from Oxford hasn't gone to waste. But I do have an excellent offer for you, Quentin." She told him. "I found files that suggest that this man" An orange gauntlet that appeared to be made out of light appeared over her right arm and an image of a dark skinned man appeared in front of her. "appeared somewhere in London babbling about Reapers. You used your pull with the British government to have the man placed in the custody of the Watchters' Council and you then had him moved to a mental institution somewhere in the United States."

"What are you getting at?" Quentin asked.

"It's quite simple, Quentin. You tell me where the man is" The woman said as she produced the key for the handcuffs. "and I'll let you go. I should inform you that the device is armed."

"West Plains Sanctuary." He said quickly.

"Good, you are capable of learning." She replied as she unlocked the cuffs.

He tried to make a hasty getaway but only got a scant few feet away before two shots rang out and he fell to the ground. He saw her put the PPK back onto the table as she walked towards the council room's doors.

"I never said you'd have your knees, Quentin." She informed him.

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To say that Joyce Summers was distressed would have been an understatement. She had just finished putting her youngest daughter to bed and she had referred to her by a name that was completely foreign to her. The name invoked feelings that she couldn't understand. They were strong feelings that seemed to have memories behind them but she couldn't remember what they were. She was brought out of her thoughts as she heard a knocking sound on her front door. Joyce went to the front door and opened it to find a brunette girl about her daughter's age standing there.

"Hello, Miss Summers." She said. "My name is Cordelia."

"I'm sorry, Cordelia." Joyce replied as she assumed that Cordelia was one of her daughter's friends. "Buffy is still out."

"That's part of the reason why I chose now to come." Cordelia said. "It's about Little Wing."

"How do you know that name?" Joyce asked her.

"You called your daughter that just before you put her to bed, didn't you?" Cordelia asked.

"I think you should leave." Joyce informed her sternly.

"I think you need to know about Benezia-"

As soon as the name crossed her lips, Joyce glowed a dark blue before she flung a warp at Cordelia. The ball of biotic energy struck Cordelia in her chest and flung her off the porch and onto the sidewalk. She let out a cry of pain when she hit the ground but she noticed that Joyce had went to one knee as she clutched her head.

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Colonel Jack O'Neill looked out over the frozen world that had been one of hundreds of worlds that had been mysteriously added to the dialing computer of the SGC. Ordinarily, the mystery might have intrigued him but with the death of his sister and her family made his thoughts go elsewhere. The icy world's thin atmosphere required them to wear spacesuits. Samantha Carter was investigating the wreckage of a spacecraft that had come down on the planet. They wouldn't be able to stay long with the limited air supply of the suits. Daniel had found some sort of datapad that he thought might contain log entries from a member of the unfortunate vessel's crew.

"O'Neill." Teal'c said loudly.

He walked over to where his best alien friend was to see that the Jaffa had discovered two things that made him want to leave the planet even more. A large section of the ship's outer hull could be seen as well as a name had still been visible.

"Normandy." O'Neill read out loud as he noticed the obvious memorial that had been placed in front of the section of the hull. "Carter, Jackson, we're leaving now."

"Sir, there's still more of this ship to look through." Carter replied as she tried to convince him to allow the team to stay here longer.

"Carter, we wouldn't want anyone trying to salvage the Arizona." He said to her. "We shouldn't be here trying to salvage this ship."

Hours later, O'Neill walked into Carter's lab to see her working on her laptop. She had called him down here because of data she had managed to pull from the ship's computer. Images from what might have been surveillance cameras inside the ship that had captured the ship's final moments. Some unknown ship had attacked the Normandy and the ship's commander had given the order to abandon ship. The jumbled images froze on the screen as he saw the face of the ship's commander just before she put her suit's helmet on.. It was like looking at a ghost as he saw the face of his niece on the screen. It hurt even more when he heard her voice.

_"Distress beacon is away."_ Willow said to the alien on the screen with her.

_"Will the Alliance get here in time?"_ The alien asked.

Static filled the screen but the video resumed with his 'niece' looking back at the alien.

_"Liara, go"_ Willow said to her. _"now."_

_ "Aye, aye."_ Liara replied before she ran off.

The video ended and Carter looked back at her commanding officer.

"I thought you needed to see it, Colonel." She said.


	5. Reunion

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, MASS EFFECT, OR STARGATE SG-1. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER IS OWNED BY JOSS WHEDON. MASS EFFECT IS OWNED BY BIOWARE AND ELECTRONIC ARTS. STARGATE SG-1 IS OWNED BY MGM. UNDER SIEGE IS OWNED BY WARNER BROTHERS.

Chapter Five

Reunion

-From The Journal Of Alexander LaVelle Harris-

-February 7th 2083-

I believe that if Willow had an option about how she would have reunited with her Uncle Jack she would have chosen better circumstances. But like all of us, we learn that life doesn't give you what is fair or what you deserve. You just have to make do with what you get.

Several months had passed between her 'death' and the reunion she had with her uncle. Amalia had destroyed the headquarters of the Watchers' Council with a thermonuclear device. I have to give her credit for overkill. She did loot the place before she destroyed it so that helped smooth things over with her and Giles. It also helped that she began to pay Giles a salary that he actually deserved plus unrestricted access to the contents of said loot.

Cordelia had been secretly meeting with Joyce to help her deal with the emerging memories of Matriarch Benezia. The emergence of the memories had somehow made Joyce a natural biotic but she still needed a biotic amp. She could have used biotics without one but she would have ran the risk of having a massive cerebral hemorrhage. As the months went by, Buffy became more displeased that her mother began to become more dominant in their relationship. Joyce even forced Buffy to reveal that Angel was a vampire after she threatened to hit him with a singularity followed by a warp. Rather dangerous considering she has the biotic power and control of an asari matriarch. Joyce forced the breakup after explaining to Buffy the inability of a vampire to allow Buffy to have any children of her own. After I heard that, I didn't want to hear anymore of the argument.

Jenny had put her new skills to great use designing new software as well as helping with the newer technologies Amalia was bringing out. Several of the advanced technologies were already saving lives which was always a good thing, right?

As for myself, I kept training both my combat skills as well as my cooking. Both were greatly appreciated by a certain slayer.

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The bizarre object that orbited Pluto had perplexed her ever since they had entered the solar system in the Goa'uld cargo ship that her father piloted. Their original goal of rescuing Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c from the ill-fated X-301 had been completed and they had intended to head for Earth except she had managed to peak the attention of both her father and his Tok'ra symbiote, Selmak. The centuries old alien had never seen a relic quite like it and they had managed to get General Hammond's permission to investigate it.

The arifact was a large bright blue device with a swirling mass of energy within it. It was almost hypnotic looking over at the swirling mass of energy. One end of the artifact was open as if it was suppose to fire something out of it.

"That's a really big blue...what is it, Sam?" O'Neill asked still recovering from oxygen deprivation.

"I'm not sure, sir." Samantha replied. "Dad, can you get closer?"

As the cargo ship moved closer, Samantha Carter noticed something else was missing.

"Charon's missing." She said.

"How can a moon go missing?" Daniel asked.

"Good question." Jacob replied. "I think the object is where Charon was."

The distance between the ship and the object closed. An energy current erupted from the object and grabbed a hold of them. The ship began to shake violently and Jacob Carter frantically worked the controls as he attempted to free the cargo vessel from its predicament.

"Jacob!" O'Neill yelled. "Get us out of-"

The cargo ship pitched forward and O'Neill fell to floor hitting his head on the back of the pilot's chair as the ship suddenly shot forward.

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O'Neill opened his eyes and began to rise off the bed he was in He rubbed his head as he checked out his surroundings. He saw that he was in some sort of advanced security cell which he noticed was across from his second in command's own cell.

"Colonel, you're awake." A man's voice said.

O'Neill walked over to the energy barrier that enclosed his cell to see a man who appeared to be around his age though he would put the man as slightly older than him. The man was clad in a blue uniform and O'Neill judged by the rank insignia that the man had a very high rank. There was something about the man though that made O'Neill want to trust the man despite not the lack of knowledge about him in the first place.

"As I was telling Captain Carter, my name is Admiral Hackett." He said to him. "Welcome to Arcturus Station."

"I have to tell you one thing, Admiral." O'Neill replied. "Your guest accomodations suck."

"You're going to have to make due considering the circumstances pertaining to your arrival. There are several people who wanted to destroy your cargo ship after it emerged from the Sol Relay. Those people found even more supporters when we recovered your ship and found the Goa'uld pilot and his pet Jaffa." Hackett informed him. "Fortunately for you, the Council received word of your arrival and requested a meeting. One of their Spectres will be arriving to take custody of you and your team."

"Jacob's not a Goa'uld. He's a Tok'ra." O'Neill replied.

"Call it whatever you want, Colonel, but that thing in him is still an alien parasite." Hackett said. "As luck will have it, Commander Shepard will be the one who will take you to the Citadel.

The man walked away from him and O'Neill looked over at Samantha.

"How is everyone, Sam?" He asked her.

"Everyone's fine." She replied. "They put some type of explosive collar around my dad's neck. I think it's suppose to insure Selmak doesn't do anything."

"Paranoid much." He said with obvious sarcasm.

"It's a good security procedure." Samantha replied. "Apparently, they have a substance that reacts rather violently with naquadah."

"Daniel! Teal'c! Jacob!" O'Neill shouted.

"I am here, O'Neill." Teal'c said.

"Here, Jack." Daniel replied.

"I'm here, Jack." Jacob said as he tugged on the collar. "Damn, this thing isn't comfortable."

The conversation they were about to have was nipped in the bud as they heard footsteps coming down the corridor. What appeared to them as a female teenager dressed in white sneakers, blue jeans, and a grey hoodie that had an N7 emblem on the front of it with a red stripe that ran down the right sleeve. The hood was pulled up which hid her face from their view. She stopped in front of O'Neill's cell and pulled the hood back.

"Uncle Jack, what in the hell are you doing here?" Willow asked as she glared at her uncle.

"Me! What the hell are you doing here, young lady?!" O'Neill shouted.

"Excuse me for a moment but remind me which one of us is in the high security cell." She replied.

"Good point but I think I should know what my niece is doing here." O'Neill said to her.

"That will take time, Uncle Jack." She replied.

"We're waiting for someone named Commander Shepard." Samantha said to her.

"Yeah, you're speaking to her. I am Commander Willow Shepard, Uncle Jack." She informed them though she directed her response to her uncle. "Besides, what in the hell are you doing here with a Jaffa and a freaking Goa'uld?"

"I'm not a Goa'uld." Jacob said quickly in his defense.

"You look like a duck." Willow replied.

"I am a Tok'ra." Selmak informed her.

Willow put her right hand on her forehead. "Goddess, why can't I find anyone normal? I always find the oddballs."

"Must run in the family."

O'Neill looked from his cell and spotted Daniel as he tried to look nonchalant. "Traitor."

"Okay, I'm going to have a squad of marines escort the 'Tok'ra' to my ship." Willow told her uncle as he saw an orange glow encompass her arm. "So, what's your story Mister Tall, Dark, and stoic?"

"Your uncle convinced me to turn against Apophis and I consider him my friend." Teal'c replied. "My name is Teal'c, Willow Shepard."

"Just Shepard or Commander or Commander Shepard." Willow informed him. "Calling me by my first name is kind of frowned upon."

"Any reason why?" O'Neill asked.

"Not one I'm willing to tell so are we done talking or do you want me to let you out of those cells?" She said to him.

Before any of them could reply, a large Hispanic man came walking down the hall. He wasn't large as in obese rather he was large in the sense that O'Neill wondered if the man could beat Teal'c in a fight.

"Yo, Lola, you bringing MacGuyver back to the ship?" He asked her.

"MacGuyver?" O'Neill asked before he saw his niece cracking up laughing.

"I'm sorry." Willow told him. "There is this old vid...well, old to Vega and me, and the main character looks like a much younger version of Uncle Jack but with a mullet."

"A mullet?" Samanta said questioning the explanation as she tried to picture her superior officer with that type of hairstyle.

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O'Neill walked around the station with his niece and noticed how the soldiers they passed as well as dozens of people watched them as they went by. He saw that they first noticed his niece and then their eyes went to him and his team. The look on the faces of the soldiers brought him back to his own time in the Air Force Special Operations Command. It was the look of people who knew that you could get any job done that needed to be done. It was not a look he had ever thought could have been associated with his niece.

"Shepard." A female voice exclaimed in their direction.

O'Neill and his team turned to see a blue skinned alien woman run over to his niece. His niece seemed very comfortable around the woman. The alien woman looked remarkably human except for the blue skin and the head tentacles that she had instead of hair. Willow held the alien woman's left hand with her right and she turned back towards him.

"Uncle Jack, I'd like you to meet Liara." Willow said.

"It's always good to meet my niece's friends." O'Neill replied.

"Colonel, I don't think your niece and Liara are just friends." Carter said which caused both Willow and Liara to smile.

"She's right." Willow replied. "Liara and I are getting married in a few weeks."

"Married?" O'Neill asked. "You've only known each other for months."

Liara looked over at Willow. "You haven't told them yet." She said.

"Liara, it's not easy to say that I use to be a thirty two year old woman who rallied the galaxy against a threat that kills all advanced sentient life every fifty thousand years and somehow managed to beat them." Willow replied. "It's not that easy."

"Apparently, it is." Liara said with a grin.

"You know me too well." Willow remarked.

"Congratulations on your pending marriage." Teal'c said to her.

"Thank you but..." Willow began to say to Teal'c before her unoccupied hand went to her ear. "EDI, what's wrong?" A few moments passed before Willow's eyes widened. "Oh crap! Recall the Normandy crew back to the ship at once. We're on the way."

Willow nodded at Liara as if the two were having a silent conversation between themselves. She looked back to her uncle.

"Okay, the tour is over and we're heading to my ship so run fast." Willow said before she took off running.

Liara was right behind her with the members of SG-1 right behind her. After a few minutes, O'Neill had a question.

"Why are we running to your ship?" He asked his niece.

"Miranda's going into labor." Willow replied as she pushed someone out of her way. "There is no way in hell I'm missing the birth of my daughter."

"Wait a minute, your daughter!" O'Neill exclaimed.

"Weird long story short," Willow said. "I got one of my best friends pregnant with my child."

"How?" He asked as he noticed his niece and her alien fiance neared a set of what looked like sliding doors.

"That's complicated." She replied as she opened the airlock's door. "Well, here's my ship. The Normandy SR-2."

Carter paused. "That was the name of the ship we began to salvage eig-"

Almost everyone was surprised when Willow stopped in mid stride, twisted around, and hit Carter square in the jaw. The astrophysicist toppled to the ground with equal parts pain and shock as a look of rage was seen on his niece's face.

"I lost twenty good people and I was killed when the original Normandy was destroyed." Willow told her with barely contained anger in her voice. "If I even hear of any word that the crash site was _desecrated_..."

"It wasn't, Willow." O'Neill said as he tried to reassure his niece.

Willow's gaze turned to him and a feeling of dread washed over him. It was a look that was completely alien to him. He regularly faced off against people that wanted to kill him that the look shouldn't have phased him but it did. It made him want to hide under the nearest rock that he could find and unfortunately for him, he was on a space station.

"My name is Shepard." She replied before she turned her attention away from them.

She walked away from them and O'Neill turned to his second in command.

"Did you have to mention the crash site?" He asked.

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Willow looked over at Joker who had his trademark grin as he looked back at her. To his left at the moment was EDI who was studying the displays even though as the Normandy's AI, it wasn't needed.

"So, why'd you lay out blondie?" He asked.

"Apparently, Uncle Jack and her were trying to salvage the original Normandy shortly after I left Earth." Willow told him.

"Wow, glad you decked her." He replied. "I probably would have broke every bone in my hand. Worth it though."

"When can we get underway?" She asked her pilot.

"Not for a while." Joker replied. "A bunch of idiots who should never have been allowed anywhere near a joystick let alone the controls of a ship decided to have a good old fashioned forty-seven ship pile up near the relay."

"Damn." Willow said. "Let me know when we're underway."

"Can do." The pilot replied.

She walked away from her pilot to see her uncle emerge from the airlock. He seemed a little bit displeased with her.

"Uncle Jack, can you accompany me to my cabin?" She asked before she looked over at Liara. "Liara, can you show his team to Deck 3?"

"I'll be happy to." Liara replied.

After nodding at his team, O'Neill followed his niece to the elevator. A short ride in the elevator brought them to another door which Willow went through with her uncle following close behind her. O'Neill looked around the cabin and liked how it was decorated though the strange head he saw was a little morbid. He heard the doors close behind him and saw the demeanor of his niece change. She became more relaxed and spun around to face him. A smile crossed her face and she quickly walked over to hug him. He returned the hug.

"I'm glad you're here." She said. "It feels like years since I last saw you."

"I came over to your home for Thanksgiving a couple of years ago." O'Neill replied.

"I know." Willow replied as she broke away from him. "But I have my other set of memories that are just as real as any other. Uncle Jack, how familiar are you with alternate universes? Parallel timelines? Things like that?"

"Daniel found this strange mirror that sent him to another reality where Earth was being attacked by the Goa'uld." O'Neill told her. "Why do you ask?"

She seemed to be hesitant as she answered him. "In another universe, humanity began to reach out into the stars thanks to ancient alien technology that was found on Mars. We found out later that we weren't alone in the galaxy. The hard way of course; humanity never had known how to do things the easy way." She said.

"So, we fought the aliens." O'Neill replied.

"One race, the Turians, during what is known as the First Contact War." She continued. "It didn't last long and humanity began to emerge into the galactic community."

"What does this have to do with you, Willow?" He asked.

"Please, Uncle Jack, call me Shepard. Things happened in my life that make me not want to be called by my first name." She told him quickly. "I was born in that reality and I grew up to become an officer in the Systems Alliance military. Because of certain events that happened in my career, I was selected to become the first human Spectre. If I managed to become one, it would show the rest of the galaxy how far humanity had came."

"What's a Spectre?" O'Neill asked.

"Basically, a Spectre is an agent for the Citadel Council that is given almost ulimited authority to safeguard the galaxy by whatever means necessary." Willow replied. "I became a Spectre and my first mission was to hunt down the very same Spectre who killed my mentor."

"Very 'A New Hope', Luke." O'Neill joked. "So, Vader kills Obi-Wan and you go after him."

"Yeah, and in the process," Willow continued. "I became the hero of the galaxy. Then, I died."

"Died." He said as he processed that information. "So the crash site we found..."

"That was my old ship, the original Normandy SR-1." She said. "The Collectors attacked and I was spaced in the attack. Miranda, the woman who I rushed backed to the Normandy to try to get to be with her when she gives birth, led a Cerberus project that managed to bring me back from the dead."

"Cerberus?" O'Neill asked.

"A pro-human terrorist group that was responsible for a great deal of bad things that occurred. Human colonies were disappearing in the Terminus Systems and no one else was willing to do anything about it so the Illusive Man brought me back as well as building me a new ship so that I can go do what I do best." Willow continued. "I assembled another team and defeated the Collectors. After that, I had to unite the galaxy to fight the Reapers."

As she finished her sentence, she sat down on the couch that was in her cabin. O'Neill sat down as well but not before he poked the silver orb that hovered over the table. He heard what might have been a stifled laugh come from his niece.

"So Reapers, that sounds bad." He remarked.

Willow's gaze went to the floor. "The Reapers overwhelmed the defenses of every world they came to in force. I was on Earth when the Reapers first arrived. I was ordered to run away and I hated it." She slammed her right hand on the table. "Thessia was even worse. I told them I would save them but I failed."

_"You did everything you could, Shepard."_ EDI said to her. _"The Crucible allowed you to save them all."_

"Thanks, EDI." Willow replied.

"What the hell was that?" O'Neill asked.

Willow chuckled at the confused look on her uncle's face. "That, Uncle Jack, would be one of my very good friends. Her name is EDI and she's the Normandy's AI."

_"It's good to talk to a member of Shepard's family especially one with your service record in the Alliance." _EDI replied.

"EDI, he's not _that_ version of my Uncle Jack." Willow quickly informed the AI.

_"My mistake."_

"Wait, what version?" O'Neill asked.

"You know how I lived another life right," She said as she tried to explain. "you were there too but you died."

"I died." O'Neill replied.

"Yeah, you received the Star of Terra posthumously for saving a colony from batarian slavers." Willow informed him. "Even managed to save all of the slaves they had in their ship's hold despite taking several severe wounds."

"Wow."

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"The lounge is to your right and around the corner; you'll find the mess hall." Liara explained.

Doctor Daniel Jackson turned to his right and headed for the lounge. Samantha Carter wasn't pleased.

"Where's my father?" Samantha demanded.

"He's being watched." Liara replied.

"Where is he?" Samantha asked as she followed Daniel and Liara towards the lounge.

"Having a glass of Salarian whiskey." Her father's voice exclaimed from the open door of the lounge

The members of SG-1 were equally surprised to find Jacob seated at the bar within the lounge as an older asari tended the bar. The asari seemed pleased to see Liara.

"Dad, I thought you were going to be in some kind of security cell." Samantha said to her father.

"With the collar around his neck, EDI can activate it if he misbehaves so I thought he could use a drink." The asari said.

"All I have to say is that this is the nicest cell I've been in." Jacob Carter replied.

"Besides, if it wasn't for that snake in him" The asari said. "I'd consider showing him how similar asari are to humans."

"Father." Liara exclaimed.

"What? He's got a great ass." The asari replied.

"Major Carter, Doctor Jackson, Teal'c, allow me to introduce you to" Liara began to say as she was about to introduce her father before she was interupted.

"Name's Aetheyta, like Liara said, I'm Liara's father which in a few weeks will make me Shepard's father-in-law." The bartender replied.

"But you're female. Wouldn't you be Liara's mother?" Samantha asked completely confused.

"No, I didn't pop her out or anything." Aetheyta replied. She looked over at Jacob. "She isn't your brightest child, is she?"

Before Jacob could come to her daughter's defense, Samantha fired back. "You can't be a father because you're not male."

"You're a little fiesty. If you're so curious, I could show you how asari mate." Aetheyta said. "Liara can watch the bar."

Liara stared at her father. "Father!"

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O'Neill paced the room while he listened to his niece talk about her life. If he had to be honest with himself, he never paid that much attention to how the other alien governments he previously encountered before. That he pretty much left up to the Space Monkey also known as Daniel. This time around made him pay attention. She talked about the various alien species she had encountered. She talked about the Citadel Council as well as the System Alliance.

Willow also talked about the people she had met and a few of them O'Neill wanted to meet himself. Admiral Hackett made him think about General Hammond. Then again, so did this Admiral Anderson she talked about. The way she talked about Anderson though made him feel as though he might have been more of a father figure for her and less than a commanding officer.

"I know you're not...comfortable with me out here fighting." Willow said to him.

"You could make money on that bet." O'Neill replied. "You're only seventeen going on eighteen. You shouldn't be out here fighting aliens bent on galactic domination."

"If it wasn't for me, Uncle Jack, only you and whomever you could scrounge up would be the only ones fighting." Willow said as she got back to her feet. "Come on, there's something you should see."

Willow walked out of her cabin with her uncle following behind her. They entered the elevator again and returned to the Combat Information Deck. He followed her past a security checkpoint as well as a conference room to a room that O'Neill could easily identify as a command and control center. He wished that he could have a similar setup at the SGC. Willow walked over to the center of the room and a map of the galaxy appearred.

"Every one of those dots is a mass relay, Uncle Jack. This is what it looked like before the Reapers invaded." She said before she adjusted the controls and the number of dots increased exponentially. "This is what it looks like now. From this room, I receive any and all information related to the war."

"Why? Wouldn't your allies keep some information to themselves?" He asked.

"Two reasons, Uncle Jack. The first is that I'm a Council Spectre." She replied. "The second reason is while the races in general might not always get along but they do trust me. Actually, I have a third reason that any information I might not get from legitimate sources the Shadow Broker is more than happy to supply."

"Shadow Broker?" He asked.

"The galaxy's most notorius information broker. With the information the Broker has, wars could be started in ten minutes." Willow answered.

"Not exactly a reputable ally." He told her.

"Actually, the Broker is someone I can put absolute faith in." Willow replied.

O'Neill thought it would be better to let the subject drop as he noticed some activity on the map. He pointed at the area.

"What's going on there?" He asked.

Willow worked the controls and brought the area up for a closer look. Several multi-colored ships could be seen and O'Neill recognized a few of them as Goa'uld ships.

"The first and second Turian fleets, several STG ships, the second and fifth Geth fleets, and thousands of krogan." Willow replied. "It's a Jaffa world named Chulak."

O'Neill's eyes went back to his niece. "Willow, Teal'c's family is on that world. We have to get them to safety." He pleaded with her. "His son's only-"

"Joker, are the ships clear?" Willow exclaimed.

_"Just finished now, Commander."_ Joker replied. _"We're on our way to the Citadel now."_

"Change of plans, Joker. Set course for Chulak and have SG-1, Liara, and Garrus report the the shuttle bay." Willow told him. "We're going on a rescue mission."


End file.
